An expert on entrepreneurial teams breaks down the assessments that can boost team productivity the most.
Assessments are an immensely valuable tool for all kinds of reasons.
One of the biggest ones: the right assessment (or mix of assessments) can lead to gigantic improvements within an organization. In fact, if you’re looking to get the most out of your team, nothing beats the right assessment.
But what is the right assessment? (Or assessments?) To dig deeper, we brought renowned entrepreneurial teams expert Shannon Waller from Strategic Coach® on to the Powered by Instinct Podcast and asked her a few key questions.
“I think the number one value for me,” Waller shared, “is to be able to get a read on people quickly. Business is moving fast. You don’t have time to just hang out eight hours a day for three months with someone getting to know what makes them tick.”
Waller pointed out that the options are endless, but that there are only a handful that she uses and promotes in her work. The right assessment, however, makes a world of difference.
“It could take you years to figure something out about someone sometimes that an assessment can help pinpoint for you right away,” she explained. “So, it’s going to shortcut it for you as a leader. It gives you insights right away. It gets you there faster.”
In her role as an Entrepreneurial Team Strategist, Waller has as much experience and insight in working with assessments as anyone. So which ones does she use and recommend for her clients?
“Number one is Kolbe,” she explained. “It gives you a really accurate read really, really quickly so that you can actually determine is this person the right fit for the role? Is the role a right fit for them? Hopefully as a leader, you care about that. Another aspect of Kolbe that is really meaningful for me is it explains how your mental energy plays out. You can be smart, but if you have no mental energy you will struggle, and this will help you understand why. That is critical for a leader to know.”
But Kolbe is not the only assessment Waller uses.
“The next one that I would say that’s most important in terms of getting to know someone is their CliftonStrengths. Do they have relationships, strategic thinking, influencing or executing strengths? That’s super helpful to know,” Waller added. “We have another affective assessment called the PRINT® profile, which is amazing. We pretty much do that once we’ve hired someone too, because it’s not an over-the-counter profile. It helps to have someone who can help interpret it for you, but that measures your unconscious motivators. And then we also do Myers-Briggs; but the ones we really rely on are really Kolbe, Working Genius, PRINT, and CliftonStrengths.”
Waller and Strategic Coach have always used Kolbe.
In fact, Waller has a personal rule that she will not coach anyone without knowing their Kolbe.
“But,” she added, “that’s only one aspect of someone. What are your preferences? What are your passions? What are your values? That affective part is the spark. You’re not striving if you don’t care.”
Waller pointed out that intellect also matters.
“It’s funny because we’ve always done Kolbe,” Waller clarified.” We’ve added a couple of personality assessments as well. But if the personality assessment and the Kolbe fit is right for the role, but the person’s still not working out, there’s only one thing left. And that is mental horsepower. We’re a fast-paced, fast-moving company that serves entrepreneurs, all of whom are really smart. So if that’s not you, then we’re probably not a great fit for you. So, I think…that’s the reason to have multiple assessments.”
Don’t be afraid to bring in an outside expert!
“People are going to believe it better and more from an outside expert. They just have more credibility,” said Waller. “It’s kind of a no-brainer. I start a lot of team sessions with people and say, congratulations, you work for an organization that cares so much about you that they are willing to invest time for us all to sit together and discover your strengths and share with others. And that’s a fabulous commitment.”
Also, don’t be scared of profiles!
“They’re not straightjackets,” Waller reassured. “They give language, and language is how we figure stuff out. If you don’t have the words for something, it can be hard to determine the next steps and to take action. The profiles help you know yourself better, help the other person know themselves, help you understand them and them to understand themselves, and then you can align towards that goal that you really are passionate about. It’s a set of tools. It is nothing more and nothing less than tools, and tools are frankly how human beings have got where we are.”
